New and Upgraded R&D Facilities in France, in Support of Nuclear Development in the XXIst Century

Abstract

In Europe and North America, most of the R&D facilities, the results of which were essential in developing nuclear power to the point where it supplies 30% of the electricity generated in OECD countries, were built in the sixties, or even earlier. Even in France, where the major industrial development of nuclear power took place during the decade following 1974 and the first oil crisis, many facilities dedicated to nuclear R&D are getting old. This concerns the reactors, their fuel, and the fuel cycle including the management and disposal of radioactive wastes. In the next century, nuclear energy is expected to play a significant part in the supply of electricity to the world, and certainly to France. To this purpose, we need to keep nuclear power safe, economically competitive, and well accepted by the Public. This, in turn, calls for innovation, fuelled by R and D. To meet this challenge, France in the next decades, is developing or planning major constructions and upgrading : research reactor, metallurgical and radiochemical « hot » laboratories, laser enrichment facility, etc. Many of these facilities will be used by researchers outside France and outside Europe.